Showing papers on "Social change published in 2015"

Cultural diversity and education : foundations, curriculum, and teaching

Abstract: All chapters conclude with "References." PART I.DIMENSIONS, HISTORY, AND GOALS. 1. The Dimensions of Multicultural Education. 2. Multicultural Education and Global Citizenship. 3. Multicultural Education: History, Development , Goals and Approaches. PART II. CONCEPTUAL AND PHILOSOPHICAL ISSUES. 4. Culture, Ethnicity, and Education. 5. Race, Diversity, and Educational Paradigms. 6. Pluralism, Ideology, and Educational Reform. 7. The Stages of Cultural Identity: Implications for Curriculum Reform. PART III. KNOWEDGE CONSTRUCTION AND SCHOOL REFORM. 8. Race, Disability, Giftedness, and School Reform. 9. The Lives and Values of Transformative Scholars and Citizenship Education. PART IV. CURRICULUM AND TEACHING STRATEGIES FOR DECISION-MAKING AND ACTION. 10. A Curriculum for Empowerment, Action, and Change. 11. Teaching Decision-Making and Social Action Skills for Social Change. PART V. GENDER, LANGUAGE, INTERGROUP RELATIONS, AND GUIDELINES. 12. Gender and Educational Equality. 13. Language, Culture, and Education Ricardo L. Garcia. 14. Reducing Prejudice in Students: Theory, Research, and Strategies. 15. Curriculum Guidelines for Multicultural Education. Appendix: Multicultural Education Program Evaluation Checklist.

Social media use and participation: a meta-analysis of current research

Abstract: Social media has skyrocketed to popularity in the past few years. The Arab Spring in 2011 as well as the 2008 and 2012 Obama campaigns have fueled interest in how social media might affect citizens’ participation in civic and political life. In response, researchers have produced 36 studies assessing the relationship between social media use and participation in civic and political life. This manuscript presents the results of a meta-analysis of research on social media use and participation. Overall, the metadata demonstrate a positive relationship between social media use and participation. More than 80% of coefficients are positive. However, questions remain about whether the relationship is causal and transformative. Only half of the coefficients were statistically significant. Studies using panel data are less likely to report positive and statistically significant coefficients between social media use and participation, compared to cross-sectional surveys. The metadata also suggest that social media...

The Health Gap: The Challenge of an Unequal World

Abstract: In Aldous Huxley’s dystopia, Brave New World, there were fi ve castes. The Alphas and Betas were allowed to develop normally. The Gammas, Deltas, and Epsilons were treated with chemicals to arrest their development intellectually and physically, progressively more aff ected from Gamma to Epsilon. The result: a neatly stratifi ed society with intellectual function, and physical development, correlated with caste. That was satire, wasn’t it? We would never, surely, tolerate a state of aff airs that stratifi ed people, then made it harder for the lower orders, but helped the higher orders, to reach their full potential. Were we to fi nd a chemical in the water, or in food, that was damaging children’s growth and their brains worldwide, and thus their intellectual development and control of emotions, we would clamour for immediate action. Remove the chemical and allow all our children to fl ourish, not only the Alphas and Betas. Stop the injustice now. Yet, unwittingly perhaps, we do tolerate such an unjust state of aff airs with seemingly little clamour for change. The pollutant is called social disadvantage and it has profound eff ects on developing brains and limits children’s intellectual and social development. Note, the pollutant is not only poverty, but also social disadvantage. There is a clear social gradient in intellectual, social, and emotional development—the higher the social position of families the more do children fl ourish and the better they score on all development measures. This stratifi cation in early child development, from Alpha to Epsilon, arises from inequality in social circumstances. Emphasising social circumstances and the social gradient is not to say that all diff erences in early child development can be linked to the social environment. Were the conditions under which children grew and developed to be equalised there would still be diff erences between individuals in cognition and social and emotional development. Twin studies show substantial heritability of cognitive ability, for example. That said, the Flynn eff ect refers to the substantial increases in IQ scores that have occurred over time that are due to the environment, broadly conceived. The evidence shows clearly that social conditions infl uencing parenting aff ect children’s ability to reach their potential and are the major determinants of the social gradient in early child development. This social gradient, in its turn, has a profound eff ect on children’s subsequent life chances. We see a social gradient in school performance and adolescent health; a gradient in the likelihood of being a 20 year old not in employment, education, or training; a gradient in stressful working conditions that damage mental and physical health; a gradient in the quality of communities where people live and work; in social conditions that aff ect older people; and, central to my concern, a social gradient in adult health. A causal thread runs through these stages of the life course from early childhood, through adulthood to older age and to inequalities in health. The best time to start addressing inequalities in health is with equity from the start. But intervention at any stage of the life course can make a diff erence. Relieving adult poverty, paying a living wage, reduction in fuel poverty, improving working conditions, improving neighbourhoods, and taking steps to reduce social isolation in elderly people can save lives. The health gradient to which these life course infl uences give rise is dramatic. There is a cottage industry, taking subway rides in various cities and showing how life expectancy drops a year for each stop. The gap at the ends of the gradient is truly large. In the London Borough of Westminster, UK, there is an 18 year gap in male life expectancy between the most and least salubrious parts of the borough. Similarly, in the US city of Baltimore there is a 20 year gap at the ends of the gradient. 20 years is huge—it is the gap in life expectancy between women in India and in the USA. Health inequalities are perhaps the most damning indictments of social and economic inequalities. These subway rides used social characteristics of area of residence. We see similar social gradients in health if we classify people by education, wealth, income, or occupational status. All societies have social and economic inequalities and all societies have social gradients in health, but the magnitude varies. At the UCL Institute of Health Equity, London, UK, we led a review of social determinants and health inequalities for the European Commission. As part of that review we examined life expectancy at 25 years by level of education. In each country there is a gradient in life expectancy—the higher the level of education, the longer the life expectancy. Three striking fi ndings emerged from the comparison. First, average life expectancy is lower in the countries of central and eastern Europe than in Sweden, Italy, and Norway. In other words we must add to our concern health inequalities between countries as well as those within countries. If we extend beyond Europe we see diff erences in life expectancy of 40 years and more. Second, the gradient is steeper in the east than in the west. Third, and linked to the steeper gradient, the country diff erences in life expectancy are much greater for people with little education than they are for people with tertiary education. The health risks associated with being low status vary greatly. The variation in health inequalities gives grounds for optimism. The data show shallower socioeconomic gradients are possible. Further, Estonia, Romania, and Hungary are able to achieve good health. They do it for people with tertiary education. The challenge is to bring the health level of the more disadvantaged up to the level Lancet 2015; 386: 2442–44

Reframing adaptation: The political nature of climate change adaptation

Abstract: This paper is motivated by a concern that adaptation and vulnerability research suffer from an under-theorization of the political mechanisms of social change and the processes that serve to reproduce vulnerability over time and space. We argue that adaptation is a socio-political process that mediates how individuals and collectives deal with multiple and concurrent environmental and social changes. We propose that applying concepts of subjectivity, knowledges and authority to the analysis of adaptation focuses attention on this socio-political process. Drawing from vulnerability, adaptation, political ecology and social theory literatures, we explain how power is reproduced or contested in adaptation practice through these three concepts. We assert that climate change adaptation processes have the potential to constitute as well as contest authority, subjectivity and knowledge, thereby opening up or closing down space for transformational adaptation. We expand on this assertion through four key propositions about how adaptation processes can be understood and outline an emergent empirical research agenda, which aims to explicitly examine these propositions in specific social and environmental contexts. We describe how the articles in this special issue are contributing to this nascent research agenda, providing an empirical basis from which to theorize the politics of adaptation. The final section concludes by describing the need for a reframing of adaptation policy, practice and analysis to engage with multiple adaptation knowledges, to question subjectivities inherent in discourses and problem understandings, and to identify how emancipatory subjectivities – and thus the potential for transformational adaptation – can be supported.

The state of social safety nets 2015

Abstract: Over the last decade, a policy revolution has been underway in the developing and emerging world. Country after country is systematically providing non-contributory transfers to poor and vulnerable people, in order to protect them against economic shocks and to enable them to invest in themselves and their children. Social safety nets or social transfers, as these are called, have spread rapidly from their early prominence in the middle-income countries of Latin America and Europe increasingly to nations in Africa, Asia and the Middle East - and today, over 130 developing countries have made investments in social safety nets an important pillar of economic development policies. The statistics and analysis in The State of Social Safety Nets 2015 capture this revolution, and reveal it in many dimensions at the country, regional, and international levels. This latest edition of a periodic series brings together a large body of data that was not previously available, drawing on the World Bank's ASPIRE database and other sources. Why have so many countries made a firm commitment to incorporate social safety nets as part of their social and economic policy architecture? Because social safety nets work. This report also reports on the rigorous evidence that demonstrates their impact, and also points the way to making them even more efficient and effective at meeting their development goals. This latest edition of a periodic series brings together a large body of data that was not previously available, drawing on the World Bank's ASPIRE database and other sources to examine trends in coverage, spending, and safety nets program performance.

The promises of qualitative inquiry.

Abstract: We address the significance and implications of the formal entry of qualitative inquiry into the American Psychological Association. In our view, the discipline is enriched in new and important ways. Most prominently, the qualitative movement brings with it a pluralist orientation to knowledge and to practices of inquiry. Adding to the traditional view of knowledge as empirically supported theory are research practices congenial with varying accounts of knowledge, including, for example, knowledge as hermeneutic understanding, social construction, and practicebased experience. Added to the goal of prediction are investments in increasing cultural understanding, challenging cultural conventions, and directly fostering social change. The qualitative movement also enriches the discipline as a whole through the special ways in which it inspires new ranges of theory, fosters minority inclusion, and invites interdisciplinary collaboration. Finally, the movement holds promise in terms of the discipline’s contribution to society at large. Here we focus on the advantages of knowing with others in addition to about them, and on ways in which qualitative work enhances communication with the society and the world. Realizing these potentials will depend on developments in responsible research and reporting, academic and journal policies, along with the discipline’s capacities for appreciating a more comprehensive orientation to inquiry.

The Political Economy of Attitudes toward Polity and Society in Western European Democracies

Abstract: This article employs 1976-1986 Euro-Barometer data to investigate the political economy of public attitudes toward prevailing political and social arrangements in eight Western European countries. Pooled cross-sectional time series analyses reveal that the effects of economic conditions extend beyond their impact on governing party support to influence feelings of life and democracy satisfaction and demands for radical and reformist social change. Attitudes toward democracy and social change also respond to important political events such as the occurrence and outcomes of national elections. We conclude by arguing that the political economy of attitudes toward polity and society in contemporary Western democracies is real, but limited by widely shared beliefs that have become key elements in the political cultures of these countries.

Habitual behaviors or patterns of practice? Explaining and changing repetitive climate‐relevant actions

Abstract: Understanding human behavior lies at the heart of responses to climate change. Many environmentally relevant behavior patterns are frequent, stable, and persistent. There is an increasing focus on understanding these patterns less in terms of deliberative processes and more in terms of habits and routines embedded in everyday life. Examinations of the ‘habitual’ nature of environmentally consequential activities have been approached from two theoretically distinct perspectives. From a social psychological perspective, ‘habit’ is studied as an intra-individual psychological construct that sustains ingrained behavior patterns in stable settings and obstructs adoption of more environmentally friendly alternatives. Sociologists from the social practice tradition, in contrast, have sought to highlight the ways in which resource-intensive ‘habitual practices’ become established and maintained in society through a commingling of material, procedural, and socio-discursive elements. We reflect critically upon key theoretical differences underpinning these two approaches to repetitive behaviors and review empirical work from both traditions that speaks to the relevance of ‘habitual behavior patterns’ central to addressing climate change. Finally, we examine how changes in habits are theorized and operationalized within both social psychological and social practice approaches, and practical implications for promoting environmentally sustainable societies.

Hegemonic masculinity: combining theory and practice in gender interventions.

Abstract: The concept of hegemonic masculinity has been used in gender studies since the early-1980s to explain men’s power over women. Stressing the legitimating power of consent (rather than crude physical or political power to ensure submission), it has been used to explain men’s health behaviours and the use of violence. Gender activists and others seeking to change men’s relations with women have mobilised the concept of hegemonic masculinity in interventions, but the links between gender theory and activism have often not been explored. The translation of ‘hegemonic masculinity’ into interventions is little examined. We show how, in South Africa and Sweden, the concept has been used to inform theoretically-based gender interventions and to ensure that men are brought into broader social efforts to build gender equity. We discuss the practical translational challenges of using gender theory broadly, and hegemonic masculinity in particular, in a Swedish case study, of the intervention Machofabriken [The Macho Factory], and illustrate how the concept is brought to life in this activist work with men. The concept has considerable practical application in developing a sustainable praxis of theoretically grounded interventions that are more likely to have enduring effect, but evaluating broader societal change in hegemonic masculinity remains an enduring challenge.

Hackathons and the Making of Entrepreneurial Citizenship

Abstract: © 2015, © The Author(s) 2015. Today the halls of Technology, Entertainment, and Design (TED) and Davos reverberate with optimism that hacking, brainstorming, and crowdsourcing can transform citizenship, development, and education alike. This article examines these claims ethnographically and historically with an eye toward the kinds of social orders such practices produce. This article focuses on a hackathon, one emblematic site of social practice where techniques from information technology (IT) production become ways of remaking culture. Hackathons sometimes produce technologies, and they always, however, produce subjects. This article argues that the hackathon rehearses an entrepreneurial citizenship celebrated in transnational cultures that orient toward Silicon Valley for models of social change. Such optimistic, high-velocity practice aligns, in India, with middle-class politics that favor quick and forceful action with socially similar collaborators over the contestations of mass democracy or the slow construction of coalition across difference.

Geek Heresy: Rescuing Social Change from the Cult of Technology

Abstract: Kentaro Toyama was a self-described A¢â‚¬A“technoholicA¢â‚¬Â and award-winning computer scientist whose research paved the way for cutting-edge products like MicrosoftA¢â‚¬â„¢s Kinect. In 2004, he co-founded Microsoft Research India, and he set his mind to design electronic inventions to improve education, agriculture, health care, and governance in the developing worldA¢â‚¬â„¢s poorest communities. What Toyama experienced in India, though, shook his faith in technology.A‚ At a school outside Bangalore, Toyama saw computers locked away in a dusty cabinet because teachers didnA¢â‚¬â„¢t know what to do with them. Mobile-phone projects to disseminate health information routinely failed. A¢â‚¬A“TelecentersA¢â‚¬Â intended to teach rural farmers better agriculture devolved into places for sleazy web surfing. Meanwhile back in the United States, Silicon Valley executives who evangelize novel technologies at work sent their children to Waldorf schools that ban electronics. And, four decades of incredible innovation have done nothing to turn the tide of increasing poverty and inequality. Why then, do we keep hoping that technology will solve our greatest social challenges? In this talk, Toyama inoculates us against the rhetoric of digital utopians and reinvigorates us with a genuinely human paradigm for social change. A heretic among technologists, Toyama is uniquely able to reveal why social progress depends on human changes that gadgets just canA¢â‚¬â„¢t deliver. He provides a fierce critique and a heartwarming reminder that itA¢â‚¬â„¢s human wisdom, not machines, that move our world forward.A‚Â

The Enduring Predictive Significance of Early Maternal Sensitivity: Social and Academic Competence Through Age 32 Years

Abstract: This study leveraged data from the Minnesota Longitudinal Study of Risk and Adaptation (N = 243) to investigate the predictive significance of maternal sensitivity during the first 3 years of life for social and academic competence through age 32 years. Structural model comparisons replicated previous findings that early maternal sensitivity predicts social skills and academic achievement through midadolescence in a manner consistent with an enduring effects model of development and extended these findings using heterotypic indicators of social competence (effectiveness of romantic engagement) and academic competence (educational attainment) during adulthood. Although early socioeconomic factors and child gender accounted for the predictive significance of maternal sensitivity for social competence, covariates did not fully account for associations between early sensitivity and academic outcomes.

Anthropology of Aging and Care

Abstract: In concert with lengthening life spans, emerging forms of care in later life reflect complex and diverse social changes. Embracing a polysemic understanding of care as simultaneously resource and relational practice, this review works across scales of social life and theoretical approaches to care to highlight connections and fissures between global political-economic transformations and the most intimate aspects of daily life. Arguing for analyses of care that account for the kinds of projects, stakes, and obstacles that emerge as people engage in social reproduction in later life, this review traces the circulation of care across aging bodies, everyday practices, families, and nations. Care in later life never exclusively impacts the lives of the old; it is thus a critical site for understanding the diverse ways that increased longevity is shaping the meanings, experiences, and consequences of life itself.

Towards a better understanding of people’s responses to renewable energy technologies: Insights from Social Representations Theory:

Abstract: In the past few years, social research has been examining what contributes to the attitude–behaviour gap in people’s responses to large-scale renewable energy technologies The NIMBY explanation for the gap has long dominated that area of research, but has also been criticised Alternative proposals to NIMBY were advanced, but it is still evident that some of those maintain presuppositions of NIMBY and that this area of research needs more integration, namely at a theoretical level In this paper we argue that to overcome those aspects it is relevant, first, to situate the promotion of renewable energy production as a social change process in today’s societies, and, second, to therefore consider the socio-psychological aspects involved in people’s responses to social change We discuss specifically how the Theory of Social Representations may help us with that and contribute to a better understanding of people’s responses to renewable energy technologies

The promises and limitations of gender-transformative health programming with men: critical reflections from the field.

Abstract: Since the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development, researchers and practitioners have engaged in a series of efforts to shift health programming with men from being gender-neutral to being more gender-sensitive and gender-transformative. Efforts in this latter category have been increasingly utilised, particularly in the last decade, and attempt to transform gender relations to be more equitable in the name of improved health outcomes for both women and men. We begin by assessing the conceptual progression of social science contributions to gender-transformative health programming with men. Next, we briefly assess the empirical evidence from gender-transformative health interventions with men. Finally, we examine some of the challenges and limitations of gender-transformative health programmes and make recommendations for future work in this thriving interdisciplinary area of study.

Social Consequences of Ebola Containment Measures in Liberia

Abstract: Introduction In the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) outbreak in Liberia, two major emergency disease-control measures were cremation of bodies and enforcement of quarantine for asymptomatic individuals suspected of being in contact with a positive case. Enforced by State-related actors, these were promoted as the only method to curtail transmissions as soon as possible. However, as with other harsh measures witnessed by Liberian citizens, in many cases those measures elicited uncontrolled negative reactions within the communities (stigma; fear) that produced, in some cases, the opposite effect of that intended. Methodology The research has been conducted in two phases, for a total of 8 weeks. Ethnography of local practices was carried out in 7 neighbourhoods in Monrovia and 5 villages in Grand Cape Mount County in Liberia. 45 Focus Group Discussions (432 participants) and 30 semi-structured interviews sustained the observing participation. Randomly selected people from different social layers were targeted. The principal investigator worked with the help of two local assistants. Perceptions and practices were both analysed. Results Participants stressed how cremation perpetuated the social breakdown that started with the isolation for the sickness. Socio-economical divides were created by inequitable management of the dead: those who could bribe the burial teams obtained a burial in a private cemetery or the use of Funeral Homes. Conversely, those in economic disadvantage were forced to send their dead for cremation. State-enforced quarantine, with a mandatory prohibition of movement, raised condemnation, strengthened stigmatization and created serious socio-economic distress. Food was distributed intermittently and some houses shared latrines with non-quarantined neighbours. Escapes were also recorded. Study participants narrated how they adopted local measures of containment, through local task forces and socially-rooted control of outsiders. They also stressed how information that was not spread built up rumours and suspicion. Conclusions Populations experiencing an epidemic feel a high degree of social insecurity, in addition to the health hazards. Vertical and coercive measures increase mistrust and fear, producing a counter-productive effect in the containment of the epidemic. On the other hand, local communities show a will to be engaged and a high degree of flexibility in participating to the epidemic response. Efforts in the direction of awareness and community involvement could prove to be better strategy to control the epidemic and root the response on social participation.

Cultural evolution over the last 40 years in China: Using the Google Ngram Viewer to study implications of social and political change for cultural values

Abstract: Chinese people have held collectivistic values such as obligation, giving to other people, obedience and sacrifice of personal interests for thousands of years. In recent decades, China has undergone rapid economic development and urbanisation. This study investigates changing cultural values in China from 1970 to 2008 and the relationship of changing values to ecological shifts. The conceptual framework for the study was Greenfield's (2009) theory of social change and human development. Changing frequencies of contrasting Chinese words indexing individualistic or collectivistic values show that values shift along with ecological changes (urbanisation, economic development and enrollment in higher education), thereby adapting to current sociodemographic contexts. Words indexing adaptive individualistic values increased in frequency between 1970 and 2008. In contrast, words indexing less adaptive collectivistic values either decreased in frequency in this same period of time or else rose more slowly than words indexing contrasting individualistic values.

Rethinking the links between social exclusion and transport disadvantage through the lens of social capital

Abstract: This paper provides a critical review of the progress in understanding the linkages between transport disadvantage and social exclusion. It follows earlier work in proposing social capital as a concept that mediates those linkages but argues that transport researchers must not confine themselves to conceptualisations of social capital as predominantly benign and capable of reducing transport disadvantage and social exclusion. A range of hypothetical pathways is discussed, highlighting the Janus-faced character of social capital as a medium for both the effectuation of progressive social change and the perpetuation and creation of social inequalities. An analysis is provided of the extent to which the recent transport-related literature supports or rejects the hypothesised pathways, and key avenues for future research are identified.

A Dynamic Process Model of Private Politics: Activist Targeting and Corporate Receptivity to Social Challenges

Abstract: This project explores whether and how corporations become more receptive to social activist challenges over time. Drawing from social movement theory, we suggest a dynamic process through which contentious interactions lead to increased receptivity. We argue that when firms are chronically targeted by social activists, they respond defensively by adopting strategic management devices that help them better manage social issues and demonstrate their normative appropriateness. These defensive devices have the incidental effect of empowering independent monitors and increasing corporate accountability, which in turn increases a firm's receptivity to future activist challenges. We test our theory using a unique longitudinal dataset that tracks contentious attacks and the adoption of social management devices among a population of 300 large firms from 1993-2009.

Social innovation and the governance of sustainable places

Abstract: This article explores social innovation as a tool for the promotion of place-based sustainable development. The literature highlights the satisfaction of basic needs and situations of crises as two major drivers of socially innovative actions. We use these insights to explore the conditions under which social innovation can lead to social transformation and sustainable place making. We also recognise that social processes occur through, and are shaped by, the material forms that constitute and are constituted in place-specific settings. This highlights the deep interconnections that exist between place making and the resources, attributes and characterises – the materiality (such as rivers, soil, trees) – that exist within that locality. It is here that a close tie can be discerned between understanding the adaptive process in complex socio-ecological systems and the role of social innovation in such adaptation. Socially innovative initiatives at the community level can also be scaled upwards through the co-ordinating role of the state, while at the same time act as a pressure for more participatory forms of governance. Governance processes that enhance the role of both economic and social actors in the steering of social change help to infuse more open, democratic practices into social steering. With social, economic and state actors co-mingling as agents of social change, social innovation can come to play a key role in enhancing sustainable human–environment interactions.

From social movements to cloud protesting: The evolution of collective identity

Abstract: This article develops a conceptual framework for understanding collective action in the age of social media, focusing on the role of collective identity and the process of its making. It is grounded on an interactionist approach that considers organized collective action as a social construct with communicative action at its core [Melucci, A. 1996. Challenging codes: Collective action in the information age. Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press]. It explains how micromobilization is mediated by social media, and argues that social media play a novel broker role in the activists' meaning construction processes. Social media impose precise material constraints on their social affordances, which have profound implications in both the symbolic production and organizational dynamics of social action. The materiality of social media deeply affects identity building, in two ways: firstly, it amplifies the ‘interactive and shared’ elements of collective identity (Melucci, 1996), and secondly, it sets in moti...

Social norms and social influence

Abstract: Psychology has a long history of demonstrating the power and reach of social norms; they can hardly be overestimated. To demonstrate their enduring influence on a broad range of social phenomena, we describe two fields where research continues to highlight the power of social norms: prejudice and energy use. The prejudices that people report map almost perfectly onto what is socially appropriate, likewise, people adjust their energy use to be more in line with their neighbors. We review new approaches examining the effects of norms stemming from multiple groups, and utilizing normative referents to shift behaviors in social networks. Though the focus of less research in recent years, our review highlights the fundamental influence of social norms on social behavior.

The Problem of Behaviour Change: From Social Norms to an Ingroup Focus

Abstract: This research was supported by ANU internal funding in order to further develop theory andresearch on the social psychology of social and behaviour change, as well as funding from theAustralian Research Council (including an Australian Postdoctoral Fellowship awarded toEmina Subasic).

Students' Perceptions of Teaching and Social Presence: A Comparative Analysis of Face-to-Face and Online Learning Environments

Abstract: Online learning has grown dramatically over the past few years and has become an integral part of most of the higher education institutions' overall strategy. While this explosive growth has created exciting opportunities for both institutions and students, high dropout rates in online learning environments continues to be a major concern for all institutions. Research has identified lack of social and teacher presence in online courses as major factors leading to student attrition. While it is easy to establish these presences in traditional classrooms, developing them in an online environment could be challenging due to absence of any face-to-face contact. The purpose of this preliminary study is to compare students' perceptions of social and teacher presences in online and traditional classroom. Thirty-four students enrolled in an online section and 29 students enrolled in a face-to-face section of an undergraduate course participated in the study. The results indicate that students' perceived stronger teacher and social presences in the online section compared to the face-to-face section. Implications of these results for practice and research are discussed.

A dynamic model of engagement in normative and non-normative collective action: Psychological antecedents, consequences, and barriers

Abstract: This review addresses three recent developments in the collective action literature. First, we demonstrate that normative and non-normative collective action participation can be predicted by different psychological variables. Second, we show that collective action participation has emotional and identity-related consequences for activists that shape their motivation to engage in future action. Third, we illustrate that members of disadvantaged groups are faced with two dilemmas—the dilemma of alternative ways of identity management and the dilemma of affective loyalties towards the outgroup—both of which present barriers to social change by undermining protest intentions. In the final part of the review, we outline an integrative framework that maps out the dynamic processes between antecedents of, barriers to and outcomes of collective action participation and highlight a number of directions for future research.